“Maestra” explores the stories of eight women who taught on the 1961 Cuban Literacy Campaign as teenagers. Through current-day interviews, we look at how this experience changed their idea about what it was to live as women in Castro’s Cuba.

In 1960, Cuba made an open call for volunteer teachers. Over 250,000 people volunteered; including thousands of very young women. Many parents refused, but the young women intensely negotiated, achieving a degree of independence virtually unknown by Cuban women at the time.

The beautiful stories these women tell, some funny and some tragic, transcend time and geography to transport you back to a transformative era for Cuba.